Election Week

by Ida Nilsson

Election week came suddenly. Having it as a far-away-in-the-future-event for a long time made it kind of hard to realize that it was over us. After spending a couple of months in Guatemala, going back to San Salvador and CIS again felt like coming home. Happy faces from 12 different countries met us in the white washed corridors of the Hotel Grecia Real and excitement was in the air. The final training before Election Day could begin.

My experience as an elections observer started in the beginning of October last year. I had already been with CIS for 3 months, so as I prolonged my commitment I was really happy to get the opportunity to really get some in depth knowledge on the process and the history of democracy in El Salvador. There were 5 of us at the very beginning and we would always leave our training with our heads full of new information. It struck me already then that I probably know more about the system in detail here in El Salvador than I know of the behind the scenes process in Sweden, where I’m from. At every training session, questions would arise and I would find myself thinking – how does this work in my country? Never thought being in San Salvador would teach me more about Sweden J

 At that time, Election Day felt very distant but you could still notice how the parties were preparing themselves for winning the votes of the people. The posters were still not directly asking for the vote, but they were there. The faces and names of the big contenders in the race started to appear everywhere.  We were lucky enough to get the chance to meet with all the mayoral candidates of San Salvador, something they had time for because the campaigns hadn´t (officially) started. Silvia Aguilar of GANA, Jorge Schafik of the FMLN, Vicente Ramirez from PNL (See picture to right) and Andrés Espinoza from CD all agreed to meet with us and we had some very interesting discussions about their plans for the capital and their views on the, at the time, ongoing electoral changes. The current mayor of ARENA, Norman Quijano, sent a representative to our meeting which was a little bit disappointing because it would have been interesting to meet him and find out more about where he stands. The rumors say that he wants to run for president in 2014, so we might hear more from him in the future.

There were a lot of things going on. The TSE ( Supreme Electoral Tribunal) was fighting to get  some reforms approved by the parliament, while not exactly always agreeing internally (Picture to the left CIS mission meeting with the TSE). Two of the old right wing parties, PCN and PDC, were cancelled after an election failure in 2009 (Salvadorean law states that parties who don´t make the 3% limit  have to be dissolved)  but they were of course not going to go down without a fight, and therefore tried to ignore the sentence. The rains hit El Salvador in October and just wouldn´t stop. Over 30 people were killed and many villages completely shut off after mudslides. Some candidates saw this as a chance to create a good image of themselves and were handing necessities out in the shelters in their party clothes something that was denounced by many. Civic campaigns were going on to make people go and update their information so that they didn´t come to the voting centers missing one letter in their name and were denied to vote. There were also thousands of names in the national register belonging to deceased people and the need to refresh the lists was great.  It is not that uncommon for the dead to vote here in El Salvador.

Before anything was resolved, we left for Guatemala. Of course we tried to keep up with everything but it´s funny the way things become distant even though we were only a couple of hours away. Returning, the intensity of the week and all the energy of the people around us very soon made it all come back though and I felt super ready for the long day of observing once it came. My group was in Ilobasco, 10 of us in total and 3 in my center. I was expecting to be a lot more tired as the day progressed but everything was so interesting to see after all the time talking about it in theory that time just seemed to fly by.

In my opinion, El Salvador has some real challenges to face in the future to consolidate their young democracy. Some structural and very important changes have been made, like implementing the residential vote, but other things are still missing. Real electoral content; presenting the suggested solutions a party has to the issues of the country is one, instead of simplifying the country´s future in catchy slogans. But I must say I am impressed by the dedication many salvadoreans showed on election day, both as voters and in the many functions of the process. Even though the information on all the changes was late and many didn´t understand the new process, and even though training of officials had serious shortcomings, people were dedicated and did the best they could. I´m happy to have witnessed that and to have been a part of this adventure. 

The plans for returning in 2014 are already being made. See you then! J

See the CIS's website for the COMMUNIQUÈ OF THE 9TH INTERNATIONAL ELECTORAL OBSERVATIONS MISSION.